Irresistible Read Online Free PDF

meet you again. I do hope you enjoy your stay in town. Good morning to you.”
    “But we must see you again,” Rex said, laying one arm across the neck of his horse and leaning forward. “We cannot simply lose you again after finding you, Sophie. My wife and I are entertaining some friends at Rawleigh House the evening after tomorrow. I believe you qualify. Will you come? I will have my wife call upon you with a formal invitation if you wish.”
    “Oh, you are married, of course,” she said, smiling warmly at Rex. “I had heard that. I would not have set wagers on your being the first, Rex, I must say, but you were, were you not? Well, Lady Rawleigh is a fortunate woman to have such a handsome, charming husband, though one can only hope that she is of suitably strong character—she also has a rogue for a husband. I have not forgotten you.” Her eyes were twinkling again. She was wagging one finger at him.
    “Now, Sophie,” he said, sounding aggrieved, “I shall rescind my invitation if you intend regaling Catherine’s ears with tales from my past.”
    “Me?” she said, laughing. “My lips are firmly buttoned, I promise you. You need not send Lady Rawleigh on a formal visit, though. I daresay she has enough to do without calling upon me. I would be delighted to attend your gathering of friends.”
    “Do you keep a carriage, Sophie?” Eden asked. “If not, I would be pleased to take you up in mine and escort you to Rawleigh House.”
    “Now, a carriage,” she said, lifting the forefinger she had just been wagging, and laughing at the same time, “is one thing the government did not think of granting me. Perhaps if Walter had saved the life of the Prince of Wales ... But poor Walter, he is not here to enjoy the joke and he really would have enjoyed it. Thank you, Eden, that would be remarkably civil of you.”
    “And I shall escort you home again at the end of the evening,” Nathaniel said. “It would be my pleasure, my dear.”
    She beamed at each of them in turn before firmly taking her leave. She had not changed. She had never pressed her company on anyone. It was always they who had pressed theirs on her. It had never occurred to any of them to wonder if sometimes Sophie would not have preferred more privacy or more time alone with Walter.
    “I feel ashamed of myself,” Rex said as they rode onward. “I remember reading all the reports of the honors paid poor Armitage—half with amusement, I must confess. One would have sworn that every other British soldier on the battlefield was lounging at his ease, twiddling his thumbs, and that only Armitage, like an avenging angel with glittering sword and flashing eyes and ginger mus taches—though those last were not mentioned in any of the reports—was saving them from the froggish brutes led onto the slaughtering fields by the Corsican monster. Those reports, as I distinctly remember, did overflow with all those clichés as well as every other known to man. But then I believe Sophie is amused by it all too—she always had the best sense of humor of almost any woman I have known—or any man, for that matter. Anyway, I remember reading about the London town house. Yet it has never occurred to me to call upon her when I have been in town.”
    “Or to me either, Rex,” Eden said, “though I have spent a great deal more time in London than any of you during the past two years. And I have never run into her until today. Good old Sophie. She was one of the best comrades a man ever had. I am glad you invited her to Rawleigh House.”
    “I want Catherine to meet her,” Rex said. “They will like each other, I believe. And Moira too, Ken.”
    They were all smiling cheerfully, Nathaniel noticed. As who would not on a lovely morning in lovely surroundings and in company with close friends? But Sophie had always had that affect on the men with whom she had been surrounded. She had always made a day seem just a little brighter—though perhaps they had been